Pro-Palestine students lose first stage of legal battle after setting up encampment inside LSE university building

A group of pro-Palestine students at the London School of Economics (LSE) have lost the first stage of an ongoing legal battle over a protest encampment they set up inside a building at the university.

The demonstrators had started the sit-in back in May at LSE's Marshall Building - prompting the institution to pursue legal routes to turf them out at the start of this month.

LSE had sought a court order to force the students to disband the encampment - and now, District Judge Kevin Moses has issued an interim possession order requiring the group to leave the premises within 24 hours once it is served.

Moses said the students "are aware of the difficulties they are causing the claimants [and] other users of the premises" a the hearing at Central London County Court on Friday.

He added that, while the students had the right to protest, "what it does not do is give parties an unfettered right to occupy other parties' premises with a view to protesting, particularly when they are required to leave".

The protesting students had established the encampment on May 14 in the wake of a report by the LSE Students' Union's Palestine Society which had made damning allegations about the university's links to Israel.

The report, titled "Assets in Apartheid", claims that LSE has invested £89 million in 137 companies involved in the ongoing conflict in Gaza - as well as fossil fuels, the arms industry, or nuclear weapons production.

The students - dozens of whom have been effectively living inside the university building since May - released a series of demands of their university in the wake of the report, and have vowed to remain in place until they are met.

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But LSE has previously said it would carefully consider the report and hoped for "peaceful dialogue" with the demonstrating students.